What to put in a creator brief for a paid ad

A creator brief for a paid ad should fit on one page and cover eight things: the goal and its metric, the audience, the product facts and allowed claims, the hook written out word for word, the beats of the body, the shot list and framing, on-screen text and safe zones, and the disclosure and usage terms. Everything else is better left to the creator.

1. Goal and metric

Give the creator the ad's purpose and its success metric. A line such as "This tests three openings for an app install campaign, judged on cost per install" changes how a creator performs the hook, and it explains why you will ask for the same body three times.

2. Audience

Describe the viewer in a sentence or two: who they are, what they already believe about the category and what they are likely to object to. Skip demographic tables. The creator needs a person to talk to.

3. Product facts and allowed claims

List what the product does, the offer, and the claims the creator may make, word for word where the wording matters. For fintech, health and other regulated categories, also list the claims they must not make. Anything the creator says in the ad is the brand's claim too, and the brand has to be able to substantiate it.

4. The hook, written out

This is the one part to script. If the test compares hooks, write each one exactly as it should be said, describe the first frame and give any on-screen text. Ask for each hook as a separate take with a clean cut into the body, so the editor can swap them. Our note on hook testing covers how the takes are compared.

5. Beats, with talking points

Give the body as four to six beats, such as the problem, the moment of discovery, the demo, the result and the offer, with talking points under each. Creators who read lines tend to sound like they are reading, while creators who know the beats sound like themselves.

6. Shot list and framing

• Vertical, 9:16, at the highest resolution the phone records. Meta's Ads Guide lists 1440 x 2560 for Reels ads (Meta, read 6 Oct 2026), and Google recommends 1080 x 1920 for vertical video ads (Google, read 6 Oct 2026).
• The product in hand and on screen, with a clean close-up of the app or the packaging.
• Several seconds of B-roll per beat, for cutaways and later re-edits.
• Clean audio with no music under the voice, so the editor controls the soundtrack. Instagram Reels ads can't carry licensed music (Meta, read 6 Oct 2026).

7. On-screen text and safe zones

The platform interface covers part of every vertical ad. Meta suggests keeping at least 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side of a Reels ad free of text and key elements (Meta, read 6 Oct 2026). Google's figures for Shorts are 10% at the top, 25% at the bottom and 10% on the right (Google, read 6 Oct 2026). TikTok publishes its safe zone as templates rather than figures (TikTok, June 2026). Ask the creator to keep their face and the product in the middle of the frame, and add the text in the edit.

8. Disclosure and usage

State how the ad will be disclosed and where it will run. FTC guidance wants the disclosure in the video, worded plainly (ad, sponsored), and steers away from vague tags (sp, spon, collab) (FTC, November 2019). On TikTok the creator also switches on the commercial content setting (TikTok, April 2026). Restate the agreed usage terms in a line, so the creator knows the footage may be re-cut and run from the brand's account if the agreement allows it. The details belong in the usage agreement.

A filled-in example

How the brief changes between rounds

The second brief is shorter than the first. Once a test has found a body that works, the next round usually keeps it and asks for new openings, so the brief carries the winning beats unchanged and a fresh set of hooks in the angle that won. If a creator carried a test, the next brief may send the same script to new creators instead. Either way, it should say what the last round found, so the creator knows which part is fixed and which part is being tested.

Cut from the brief

Long brand guidelines, mood boards made for other formats and the full feature list. Overloaded briefs produce ads without a clear message, so each concept gets one message and each test gets one variable.

Review the first takes

Ask for the hooks and one pass of the body before the full shoot. A short review at that point catches framing, audio and claims problems while they are still cheap to fix.